Sea to Summit Ultralight: quilt

Showing posts with label quilt. Show all posts

Winter Quilt with a Custom Trapezoidal Baffled Footbox.

Last year I got tired of sitting out the entire winter then having to struggle to get my 'trail legs' the next summer. I decided to get out and enjoy the backcountry in the winter. . . but the last time I camped in the snow I was a Boyscout and my memories include freezing all night in a canvas A-frame tent.

After hearing about the easy way to the snow via the tram to Mt. San Jacinto I was determined to get out in the winter. I figured that if I could do a few nights in the local mountains I would be ready for a real snowshoe trip in the High Sierra. I would need a much warmer quilt if I wanted to actually stay warm and enjoy the cold winter temperatures.

It was time to make a Winter Quilt with a Custom Trapezoidal Baffled Footbox.

Custom Quilt with No Cold Spots!

There is nothing worse than being woken up in the middle of the night by the cold because the down in my quilt has migrated to the sides.

My latest "ultimate quilt". Finally no more cold spots.

Lightweight Summer Quilt

This is a simple summer quilt with 1" baffles. After fooling around with a lot of different designs, dimensions and materials this final version of the summer quilt seems to be perfect (or whatever perfect is today).

Materials:

Momentum50 Black for the liner and Aegean Blue for the outer/shell. This is the latest and lightest breathable material from Thru-Hiker.com
30% overstuffed with 6.3 ozs 900 f/p down from Thru-Hiker.com
1" baffles spaced every 5" using 0.34 oz/sqyd cuben from Zpacks.com.
1/16" shock cord for the adjustable neck from Zpacks.com.
1/2" plastic D-Rings (questoutfitters.com)
Small metal eyelits (questoutfitters.com)

Dimensions:

50" at the neck end tapering to 56" for the 2nd to 9th baffles, then tapering down to 40" at the foot end. The total length is 78".

The loft seems to have come out over 1 1/2" probably due to the 30% overstuff. I think this should be good down to 40 degrees easily, and probably into the 30's with a silk base layer/puffy jacket/wind shirt/sleep socks etc.

Total weight is 12.48 ozs.

Here are a few photos:

Wearable Quilt

The quilt described below can be used as a sleeping bag or a warm puffy jacket, which is nice!

I am new to making my own gear and just recently started sewing on an old 1930's era Singer. I have learned a lot and been encouraged by the posts on Backpackinglight.com. Although I added some stuff myself for this quilt I mainly followed the directions on Thru-Hiker and Jamie Shorts website. For any other new-b MYOG people out there I would definitely encourage you to give it a shot.

Some basics on the materials: The shell material is SevenD from TiGoat, the baffles are 0.31 oz/sqyd cuben from Zpacks and the Omni-tape and plastic hardware are from Quest or Zpacks. The down is 900 f/p from Thru Hiker.

The baffles are 1.5". I overstuffed by 30% much like the Zpacks quilts. The loft turned out to be about 1.75".

The quilt is 78" long and is tapered to 50" at the top/neck, 56" at the widest and 38" at the foot. There is 1/16" shock cord with mini cord locks around the collar to gather the quilt around the neck without being too tight or uncomfortable. The top baffle is overstuffed to about 2.75" of loft.

The footbox is created using omni-tape along the ends and about 24" along the sides. I tapered the foot end to create a trapezoidal footbox similar to a Katabatic quilt.

The head hole is sewn into the middle baffle using 0.31 oz/sqyd cuben and omni-tape.

The total weight is 16 ozs and includes 9.9 ozs of down without the removable trapezoidal footbox. With the removable trapezoidal footbox the total weight is 16.7 ozs which includes an additional 6 grams of 900 f/p down. I have used this quilt down to 25 degrees in the High Sierra and slept like a baby. I was wearing silk long johns and a lightweight Black Rock down vest.